Category Archives: 2010 Soccer WorldCup Teams

England may have won the Soccer World Cup only once but then only seven countries have managed to achieve that feat so far. England played its first international against Scotland on 30th November 1872, resulting in 0-0 draw. Since then England Soccer has come a long way.

England won its first and only Soccer World Cup on 30th July 1966 at Wembley Stadium, London. That is the day people buy England football tickets for. Around 98,000 people were present right there at the stadium to be the part of history when Bobby Moore’s team defeated West Germany 4-2 in the World Cup Final. Hurst and Peter were the goal scorers, the former scoring 3 of the 4 goals in total.

Since World Cup victory in 1966, major soccer events have proved to be a mixed bag for England. England has 12 World Cup participations to its credit i.e. in the year 1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1998, 2002 and 2006 and seven appearances in the European Championship. The best they could achieve at this level of the game was the 3rd position in 1968.

David Beckham and Steven Gerrard are the top players of the current English team. Expected England Squad for the 2010 Soccer World Cup includes Paul Robinson, Micah Richards, Ashley Cole, Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, David Beckham, Gerreth Barry, Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen.

Two rounds of world cup qualifying matches in South America are over. No big surprises yet. Paraguay tops the group with 23 points; Brazil is second with 17 points, followed by Argentina with 16 points. These countries have always been there at the world cup. It is all about the hot seat now.

Hopes of Soccer fans from rest of the South America have not faded as yet. They all are prepared to book their soccer packages once their teams qualify. Mathematically all the teams are in a chance to qualify for the world cup. But at the moment Uruguay is just on the verge of edging out Ecuador. Uruguay is the front runner with 13 points but closely followed by Ecuador with 12 points and Colombia with 11 points.

Chile is also in contention but Ecuador is not the bad team either. Losing to Venezuela didn’t hurt their reputation but a disastrous show against Brazil must have been demoralizing.

The soccer is one of the most loved games on earth but ironically it is the game which has witnessed the most number of tragedies as well.
It was just another day or was it?! Not really, the ghost of soccer tragedies came back as perhaps it never left the stadiums. This time it was the turn of Abidjan, the city saw the death of 19 soccer fans and 132 injured in the crush at the national stadium. These are the official figures. Unfortunately, the real count could be higher. The incident occurred when a wall collapsed at the stadium shortly before Ivory Coast beat Malawi 5-0 in the Soccer World Cup Qualifying Match. The tragedy was caused by overcrowding. 50,000 people were packed in the 35,000 capacity stadium and police didn’t help the cause, it used tear gases which only added to the panic. Nobody knows what it would take to prevent these tragedies for happening time and again.

An inquiry has been opened into Sunday’s tragedy at the Felix Houphouet-Boigany Stadium but as far as people are concerned they are fed up of this soccer mourning every now and then. No lessons learnt! People come here for joy and saw tragedies happening and then they don’t go back home ever again. You will see bodies of 10 year old to 60 year old all over. Is this Soccer we live for? We are not buyingsoccer tickets but we are buying untimely and trageic death. We don’t want anybody to suffer. We don’t want our family members and friends to die. But anybody listening?! The worst part of it is in few days everything will be forgotten only to allow it to happen again at some other place at some other time. This Ghost will keep haunting the stadiums and as soccer loving people we should be mentally and physically prepared, it might happen to us sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile an emergency meeting has been called on the next day, presided over by Prime Minister Guillaume Soro. A Crisis Unit has been set up to deal with the tragedy.

It is important that such tragic happenings do not take place any more. Soccer is a beautiful game and it certainly deserves better.

Oh! Please, don’t take it literally but it would have been the experience for Maradona when his beloved country was stunned by Bolivia 6-1. Maradona would have never imagined in his wildest dreams that he would live on to watch this happening to him.

The awesome striker of 80’s who took his team to the Soccer World Cup Victory in 1986 ironically witnessed the most humiliating defeats in 60 Years at the hand of the Bolivians. It was just not that his team lost, he lost his 100% record too.

The only solace that the Argentine can afford to have is that they should have been at this altitude only for trekking rather than playing football. At such a high altitude of 3600 meters above sea level in the Bolivian Mountains, Diego Maradona was just present there to witness the great fall of his team from those great heights.

Bolivian Striker Joaquin Botero showed no mercy and scored a hat-trick as Marcelo Martins, Alex da Rosa and Didi Torrico also added to the misery of Argentina. Martins put Bolivia on course in just the 12th minute of the game. Argentina hit back in the 25th minute when Luis Gonzalez scored for the visitors but thereafter Argentina was on the field only to be crushed by the rampaging Bolivians who gave every penny back to their fans they had spent on soccer tickets.

Diego Maradona was the captain when he led his team to World Cup win over West Germany in 1986 and ironically he is the coach when his team suffered one of the most humiliating defeats. Breathless Maradona in his own words; “Every Bolivia goal was a stab in my heart.”

It doesn’t matter if it is not cricket. The Rivalry among these two high profile nations is just the same. As expected the Socceroos won the match against Uzbekistan 2-0. Australians have to wait just for a while before they secure their trip to South Africa. Mathematics some times work for you and some times spoils your party too. Bahrain has beaten Qatar 1-0 and they are too in the race, well…mathematically at least. So Australians will be waiting for another two months before they start packing for the trip. Even if Australia loses in Qatar in Doha on June 6, they have two games remaining against Bahrain and Japan to assure back to back appearances in the Soccer World Cup.

Meanwhile England have also all the plans of joining the Socceroos on the same bus to South Africa. And who talks about cricket here. Football pitch is going to decide who the Boss is. Peter Crouch and John Terry just kept England on the right track by beating Ukraine 2-1. But why do they always try so desperately to wake up only when hit hard. The match was a nail biting finish and Ukrainians had almost drawn the match. Perhaps this time Ukrainians were in a mood of presenting a gift for the English Team and thanks to their poor defending they managed to do it easily. It wasn’t a match you would buy soccer ticketsfor. England did not win the match but Ukraine has lost it. But who cares! At the end of the day, a win is a win and that’s what England has done five times out of five.

The Australian National Football Team nicknamed as the “Socceroos” is almost there. The Australian team could be the first team to qualify for the 2010 Football World Cup in South Africa.
Since 2006 Soccer World Cup Australians are riding on a wave which perhaps will see them through as the first qualifying team for the 2010 World Cup. Apart from putting there act together it will be also some combination of stats which will help them in the cause.

It is just a matter of 3 points now and Australia could be the first team heading South Africa if Pim Verbeek’s side defeats Uzbekistan at ANZ Stadium tonight and expect Bahrain and Qatar to draw their qualifying matches in Manama 5 hours later. This combination of results will ensure that the Socceroos cannot get worst than the second position in their Asian Group A and therefore guaranteeing it to be the first team for the African Safari.

The tough job has been done and Socceroos will be relaxed this time. So for this match do you think they will go with 6 Strikers on the field? I guess you are asking too much for your soccer tickets. Well, Socceroos are not that relaxed. It won’t be a do or die match for the Australians but in no way it means that it would be any less exciting. Around 60, 000 spectators are expected to watch the grand spectacle as the grueling workouts of the team for the past 15 months lead them to the Grand Soccer Event.